I am a Cat Woman. My self-appointed mission in life is to save the feline world! To accomplish this mission, I get cats fixed. Perhaps my mission might be slightly delusional. This blog is a mishmash of wishful thinking, rants, experiences as I remember them and of course, cat stories and cat photos. I have a nonprofit now, to help keep the cats here cared for and to fix community cats. Happy Cat Club formed in 2015. Currently, we are on a mission to fix 10,000 cats.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Ditch Kittens Fate

I have come to the conclusion the Church Ditch kittens will not survive. All three had diarrhea to begin with. I felt it was more likely from the bad water they had to drink down there, which is stagnant and smelly and infested with algae and nutria feces and urine. I treated each for three days with panacure, which is supposed to get giardia and roundworms.

I wonder if I should have been using also albon. I have no money to take all these rescued kittens and cats to vets who charge so much just for an office visit.

I would think distemper except they would all be dead now. The Siamese had to have fluids tonight. He was dehydrated. He's had two partial baths today alone, to wash off his tail and back legs.

The only thing that stopped the diarrhea temporarily was activated charcoal. I gave them more of that tonight and started them on Albon.

It is very possible they have an underlying something, like Felk, or FIV or FIP. They remain in isolation. I don't think it's Felk. I don't know why I would think that. I vaccinated these two remaining, the first day back here. That was after that woman took him in, on the 12th, the day I trapped them. Now it's two weeks later. Two weeks of chronic diarrhea. I don't even know why these other two are alive. If a kitten can withstand that long with diarrhea, and probably had it before I trapped them, they're tough kittens to last, sick like that. I will guess still they got something when forced to start supplementing mom's milk by drinking that crappy water down there. Since they were about seven weeks of age, when I trapped, they probably had only begun drinking that water a week or so before I trapped them.

I only knew there were kittens down there when I spotted the little orange one over where the feeders feed, scratching at the dirt, searching for food. They don't put food down but once a day, very early. Kittens don't stand a chance on a schedule like that. They don't put out water, so the cats drink from that horrible horrible stinking stagnant "creek".

I would guess most kittens would be dead within a month, maybe two of partial weaning. Whatever's in that water kills them. Giardia? Coccidia? Both? Other stuff? E-coli?

Would have been cheaper to test that fetid water, but now it's rained so heavily, a test would be skewed.

I don't think these kittens will make it. I think they have something I haven't the home med skill or supplies to conquer.

After long research on the web tonight, I'm changing my tune. I believe they might indeed be Felk positive. That's because their diarrhea is sporadic. And it's because of the tumor in the mouth of the kitten who died. I've seen throat tumors before in conjunction with kittens who had leukemia. Add in diarrhea, sometimes blood streaked. Felk. But, I will keep them on albon, in case it is coccidia, and get one tested somehow. The vet I use charges a fortune for a test. I might get away with a free exam because the kitten has not been seen there before, but if the one I take up isn't positive, that means a fecal, and more money and I don't have any money to spare. I have never had a fecal come up positive for coccidia, even though I am really positive a cat has it. That's because the little darn things aren't shed with every poo, so it's pretty a waste of money to get one done. If the kitten is negative, they're going to get both metro and albon. That's all I can do.